A Chronicle article form 1953. Note the rate changes over the years. (Call SKyline-1-4866!)

A Chronicle article form 1953. Note the rate changes over the years. (Call SKyline-1-4866!)

Photo: Chronicle Archives, The Chronicle

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A Chronicle article from 1973, with random Treaty of Paris brief.

A Chronicle article from 1973, with random Treaty of Paris brief.

Photo: Chronicle Archives, The Chronicle

Image 23 of 23

Strawberry Music Festival loses venue for 2nd year

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Organizers of the popular Strawberry Music Festival outside Yosemite National Park have launched a grassroots campaign to save this year's event after their permit was denied because of last year's devastating Rim Fire.

San Francisco Recreation and Park officials, who oversee the city-owned camp where the bluegrass show is held, said in a letter to festival organizers last week that safety concerns and water-supply problems linger even months after the wildfire raged through the area.

The site of the event, Camp Mather, did not burn. But parks General Manager Phil Ginsburg said the risk of charred trees falling on visitors and fire-weakened water lines coming up short prompted him to turn down the festival's permit request for Labor Day weekend.

Event organizers said the city's issues are overblown and can be addressed. They've started a website - www.savestrawberrymusicfest.com - and are asking fans to contact officials to urge them to reconsider.

Cancellation of this year's festival would mark the second straight Labor Day weekend without a show. The four-day event was aborted last year after the Rim Fire ignited two weeks before the scheduled Aug. 29 kickoff.

Calling off the show again would not only leave music lovers in the lurch, but could jeopardize disaster funding that festival organizers were awarded so that they could provide refunds to last year's ticket holders.

"We'd like to bring it back for fall 2014, because we don't see any reason not to," said Jodi Barnett, director of marketing for the festival.

Barnett dismissed the city's safety concerns, noting that Camp Mather will open as usual to guests this summer. Any water shortage, she added, could be avoided by trucking in supplies.

"We've tried to work all our diplomatic channels. We've given (city officials) every opportunity to work with us, but they haven't," Barnett said. "We feel obliged to fight for an opportunity to be heard."

Because of the fire, organizers have already decided not to hold a spring festival, which is typically offered in addition to the Labor Day weekend show.

Organizers were awarded just over $800,000 in federal disaster assistance in January to help cover their investment in last year's show and to refund ticket-holder fees of $65 to $200. But the aid is contingent upon having a 2014 show, Barnett said.

"When we came out of the festival cancellation, we had very little financial resources left," she said.

With or without disaster funding, Barnett said organizers would try to provide the refunds.

The head of Stanislaus National Forest, where Camp Mather is located, has also come out against the festival. In a letter to San Francisco in March, Susan Skalski expressed concerns that guests might enter areas closed off because of the fire and interfere with post-fire logging.

The Rim Fire, California's third largest, burned more than 400 square miles of national forest and park lands.

City parks spokeswoman Sarah Ballard said she hopes the festival will return in 2015. This year's decision cannot be appealed, she said.

"This is about the safety of the 7,000 participants," she said. "We can't safely issue the permit."

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